His contribution to the fight did land him on the list, though Frank had to wait a while. For once, Deli wasn’t the one they were waiting on. Mana still took hours to recover, and he wasn’t much of a Mageling without it. He needed to figure out a way to save mana, store it. Either in runed items, or as some kind of external pool. He knew the first was possible, but had no idea on the second.

Deli was doing the rounds, in the sense that she’d walk from one group to another, and share stories of the fight. She’d wanted to train since they were resting anyway, but there’d be none of that. Last thing they needed was for her to be exhausted if they needed to move quickly.

Health = 9/42

Mana = 1

It was taking a while. At least the salve had done its job, and she wasn’t being a brat anymore. It wasn’t so bad. Taking her mind of the itching helped, and so did fooling around, with the darkness in her eyes. This all wasn’t helping with that.

The best part of this mess? He’d spent another eight points of Health on that attack. So he should be at 87%. Frank crossed his fingers.

Aspects (Limit)

Physical (18)

Mental (18)

Mystical

Agility: 4-2

Body: 3-1 (+6/40)

Reaction: 4-1

Strength: 3-1

Instinct: 3 (4/40)

Logic: 5-1

Presence: 4-1

Will: 5

Destiny: 10 (10)

Fortune: 1 (10)

Magic: 0+1 (8)

Soul: (4-1) 2

Gift of Life

Health = 42

Recovery – 3/day

Gift of Heart

Mana = 8

Recovery – 15/day

Gift of Self

Guiding Light

Warm Smoke

Skills (+Applied,-Inactive, Unable,)

Traits, +Skills

Agility = 2

-Basketball 2

+Smooth 2

-Reflex 2

-Deflect 3

-Riding 1

+Carving 2 (8/30)

Instinct = 3

-Empathy 1 (0/20)

-Reflexes 2

+Bargaining 1 (9/20)

-Survival 1 (4/20)

+Channel 2

+Frostfire 1

Destiny = 10

Summoned Hero (Divine Blessing) (152/352 days) – Destiny 4

Scorched (Creational Curse) – Destiny 3 (87%)

Outsider (Invited Invader) – Destiny 2

Foolish beyond Reason (Achievement) (152/352 days) – Destiny 1

Body = 2

-Conditioning 1

+Soldier 1 (0/20)

+Pain Management 1 (11)/20)

Logic = 4

-Ecology 4

+Biology (5) 4

+Science 2 (0/30)

-Mathematics 4

-Tactics 4 (0/50)

-Strategy 2

+Runes (Red Sun) 3

+Runes (Eversnow) 1

Fortune = 1

Reaction = 3

+Awareness 3

+Search 3

+Ignore 2

-Riposte 2

Presence = 3

+Extrovert 2

+Public relations 2

+Command 3 (19d)

-Pilgrim 1 (4/20)

Magic = 1

Banked Еmbers I (Scorched)

Strength = 2

+Lift 2

Spearman (Red Sun) 2 (0/30)

+Medium Armour 2 (0/30)

Will = 5

+Temptation 4 (3/50)

+Resistance 4

+Principle 1

+Persistence 4

Soul = 2

The Wonder of Magic II

+Pale Gate Greeting I

It was a one to one rate of change. One point of Health burned for one percent of the Curse lifted. It would take a while, but that was manageable. A month was 25 days, four quarters and a holy day, so with three Health recovery for every day, it would only take a bit over a month. If he could focus on it.

Frank didn’t think he got any achievement progress out of it. He had fought in harder battles, and faced longer odds. Already set himself on Frostfire. It wasn’t new.

He hadn’t planned to spend so much, but the stab from that thing had hurt like little else. Resisting the influence of the paralyzing cold had been more a matter of Will than Body, and might have had something to do with him calling Frostfire to chase it out. A lot of it, to make sure it actually went away. That thing was strong. He doubted a little fire killed it.

Frank had never been stabbed by something intensely cold and dead like that before. He’d taken some worse wounds from other sources, but none like it. At least it gave him some Body progress. He’d need to arrange for Deli to get stabbed as well. That was excellent progress for just one impalement, when all the cold getting here hadn’t given him even one.

“Not today, but while we’re here. She’d need to be fully recovered before that. I don’t want to send her on a downwards spiral, while she’s down in Will. I have to keep reminding myself: not everyone has five Will, and four Resistance on top of that.”

Thinking on it, he’d been through a lot, back when he had Body six. His standards might be a little skewed. While he didn’t doubt that someone would die in all this, and some might have already, that was not a fight where his life was in true danger. Not surrounded by so many warriors, as he had been. Six progress for it, anywhere, was phenomenal for a fight like that, and it came from a new kind of pain, not the fight itself.

Some days he’d felt like the Academy had a buffet of pain, and the trainers were just picking out which kind to serve that day.

It could have become much worse, a battle worthy of progress and achievement, at any moment. If there had been more Wailing Women, if the flying Demon had gone for him as well, if he had to deal with ten Bones as well as the Wailing Women at the same time.

If the line had broken and the fight turned into a desperate retreat. Things like that.

But it hadn’t. Not for him. The only thing on that battlefield that had really felt like it might just run him over had been the horned Demon frog thing. And someone else dealt with that. Maybe the Skeletons too, but they never got close to him.

Thing was, progress was slow. A grind, that got harder with each new tier of Ability and Skill. It took more to go from three to four, than from two to three. Getting to three was thirty points, and four took forty. And it got harder to earn each point of progress as he went up.

The Lifecord wasn’t of the world. It was his. Frank had to push himself, regardless of the actual odds. He had to feel like he was either exploring something entirely new, or pushing past limits. Without it, progress stagnated. And that was for the monthly updates.

Achievement progress, while the fastest way to grow, gain in power?

It was life and death. Every time.

“I can’t cheat it, because it is me. All me. And I know when I’m fighting for my life. That wasn’t it.”

That was one of the things about this world. You could have a hero of incredible power rise up in just a year. If they’d been fighting for their life through all of it, under ever escalating threats and challenges, each of which could have killed them.

No one survived odds that long, even if they got lucky to get a fight just on the edge of their Ability every time. No one but real legends. Not regular Heroes like Frank. He’d seen some of them try the Empire’s Dungeon gauntlet. If was massive progress… if you survived it. Six Heroes didn’t.

Disfavoured children of noble houses always had it as an option for cleansing the stains from their names. But few who entered made it out. Frank had never gone himself. Once you were in, the only way out was through, and fuck that.

No, Deli was the one that would be growing from this the most. It would be a lot of firsts for her. First time in a formation, first time in massed combat, first time fighting and killing more than ten opponents. They were all personal achievements, and she’d likely grow from them. Deli might not have been in true mortal peril, but it would have felt to her like she had.

The early growth spike was great for transitioning from a peaceful occupation to a violent one. But it often set up unrealistic expectations after it ended. As it got harder and harder to find a real achievement, without truly taking on terrible odds. Because you couldn’t cheat it. If you fought off a dozen enemies all alone? Great for you.

But next time, fight two dozen. No? No rapid progress for you.

A lot of young fools died chasing that progress, thinking themselves immortal.

It would be depressing, if not for one of the benefits of Abilities and Health: the extended lifespan.

Frank wasn’t in a hurry. Body two had an average lifespan of sixty, if it didn’t end in violence. Three was ninety. Four extended it to a hundred and twenty, and people in their nineties with four Body were still fighting as if they were in their thirties.

It wasn’t the fast road to power of some game worlds, not without taking on ridiculous odds. A part of him had been disappointed at that.

Another had considered the kind of world that would produce, and decided that he didn’t want to live in a world like that. Where monsters that terrible were that easy to find, and people could match them, and needed to on a regular basis. This world had its Heroes and Champions, and terrible monsters. But they were the exceptions, not the standard.

Normal long time elites plateaued at around six in Ability and Skill according to the Academy. Those were high nobles, heads of lesser high noble houses and petty kings. Progress past that point took truly exceptional effort, or fighting rare magical and unpredictable enemies. Usually monsters, but he guessed some Demons and Greater Dead would count as well.

The last time this world had an actual apocalyptic threat was more than two thousand years ago, by the records of the Academy. And the Gods took care of most of it, literally. At least, according to the histories. Frank wasn’t sure he bought that, or if it was them writing their own stories. In any case, that had been a time when legends were made, but it had also been a terrible time to be alive. Or raise a family.

There had been nasty disasters since, every few centuries, or wars that engulfed the continent, but nothing world ending. Nothing he couldn’t weather from afar if he just picked the right spot to settle down in.

***

“Ir-karlak, Our God of Perseverance, I call upon you now to grant this servant but a fraction of your glory! Gift us a reflection of our trials, in these cold days and among dead risen. To push back the darkness for another night and keep the fires alight, bless this worthy soul with your might!”

Blessings always felt weird. Enchantments felt odd in a different way, but blessings were weird. For one, the prayers, songs and rituals that preceded them.

He didn’t have to know the words, but waiting in silence while a priest and their choir sang was always a little awkward. In the Empire they insisted on lathering him in “sacred oils” to “better connect with the Divine”. Standing in noting but a pair of briefs while a bunch of religious people did religious things all around him always struck him as more of a showcase. A performance meant to impress and humble, then actual need.

“They charged through the nose for the service and now had to justify the budget and bolster their reputations.”

The confederation priest? He had none of that. Frank was anointed in snow and ice, not oils, and only a little on his forehead and cheeks. A bit of drawn blood mixed with fresh milk to drink, from the karala, the goat/sheep domestic animals, and that was that. Hell, the prayer was picked up and dropped mid song by passing faithful, some terrible at singing.

They were out in the open, in the snow.

No runes, no special church, no naked oils. No dancing and an hour’s production about it all. Just a few customary, ritual touches and a short prayer, and Frank felt the blessing take hold. It felt like coming in from the cold, returning home from a long, miserable trip.

Frank blinked his eyes to make the wetness go away. He was a long way from home, not that he really had one anymore.

“But some day; someday.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course my good man. I am here to help.” The hand that landed on his shoulder nearly dropped him on his ass, and would likely bruise a bit. But as he’d just gotten a Blessing of Health he wouldn’t complain about it. Already, he could feel his Health slowly climbing. Even without checking Health, everyone could sense it vaguely, like being hot or cold. Except it was feeling safe or exposed, vulnerable.

Blessings of Health came in different flavours. The most mana efficient one, as many priests were quick to remind everyone, and the one the Priest was handing out, was a recovery boost. It might take an hour or two, but he’d recover a lot, with little effort from the Priest. Nor was he alone. The Priest went down the line, laying hands on each of the lucky or deserving.

He was one priest. There were sixteen men and women in the line. He ran out of light after the eleventh. Frank had been fourth, in this line. The last members of this line would be in the next one too.

Frank waited for him, after. “Why sixteen?”

“That’s a question about mana and the nature of magic. For one such as you? It is an expensive one.”

He considered it for a moment, but declined. He could probably figure it out himself. One of the things about the Academy that had annoyed him to no end, was that things were done in a certain way, because they were done in that way. There was no science to it, to experimentation. Theirs was not to question why, just do. It had also left him far too tired to try things on his own, when he wasn’t busy training under supervision.

The days and nights in the mercenary company had been filled with a different kind of distraction.

But now? Someone had to have done the work already. And if they could figure it out, so could Frank.

…

Just not in a fluid situation like this. He could set aside a few days for experiments with his mana later.

***

Health = 27/42

Mana = 7

The Priest did good work. His Health had climbed by 18 before the blessing ran out. He’d been afraid that with how everything around here was a bit lower, in Skill, in Ability, he’d get sub-par healing as well. But 18 was pretty average. At least for the Empire, and for a single point of mana spent.

The afternoon was well upon them, heading to evening, and efforts below were stalled. Once all the groups got close to taking actual casualties, they dug in, with servants helping transport wood down there for more barricades. The trouble with those was that while they could barricade the avenues, there were too many side tunnels and small passages, cubbies or cracks that led nowhere, to seal and explore them all quickly. The scouts had given them a glance in passing, but it was up to individual parties to clear them out.

At least the Captain had a recent map of the tunnels, so Frank and Deli got instructions which segments to check out, and what to expect in them. Because of their low numbers, they’d been given a dead end. It might have something nasty in it, but at least they shouldn’t get suddenly swarmed from a side passage. Frank had asked for a lone assignment, as they were the most lucrative. If they found loot, they’d only have to pay tax on it, not share.

Frank had copied a sketch of some of the tunnel avenues, and their segment of winding paths.

He was carrying the torch, saving his mana for the fight ahead. He hadn’t recovered fully there, and wanted every point ready just in case. His hand remained free to fight, as the torch had a back harness, and stood out over his head like a banner, but of light, not cloth.

Deli didn’t know how to check her Lifecord on her own, which he’d expected. “I’ll have to teach her that too.” She was itching for some action, to contribute, advance.

The first room in their path was a storage room. Large clay cups lined the walls, marked with vines and bees. Mead and honey, from what he could tell. The mead was covered in a lot of dust and ancient, likely having gone bad ages ago. The honey was probably still good. It did that.

Deli gently laid a palm on his cheek. “Sorry Frank. Food in storage doesn’t fall under loot. It’s supplies.”

He figured as much. All that honey, and he couldn’t have any. They looked around. It wasn’t a large room. Maybe four by eight meters, with large clay cups along the sides, and on stone shelves. There were odd mushroom growths along the top shelf.

“Everbread.” Deli elaborated. “It’s living mushroom bread. Won’t spoil for at least a decade or two, if stored properly, mostly dry and underground. Terrible taste, but filling. I wouldn’t risk it still. Demons.”

She didn’t need to elaborate further. “Right. The other reason not to take some honey. Some asshole Demon might have poisoned it. Joy.”

The doorway to the hall after was missing a door. It curved a bit, up and to the left, and emerged into a room that he heard before they saw it. There was an abandoned mushroom farm in it, with a bubbling stream going through it. Coming out of the stone, and disappearing back in it on the other side. It was a larger room, twenty by forty meters, maybe. Leaning against the side of the entrance was an ancient wooden shack, probably some kind of tool shed.

Apart from them, the room was empty. Nothing moved, but they still took it in carefully. They’d already seen that piles of rocks, or large patches of mushrooms, could hide Bones.

They found some ancient trowels, carved from wood and all but falling apart if touched in the shack. They were rotten from the moisture in the air. Frank was still poking the pile of trash in the shack when he heard Deli shout in pain: “Damn it!”

He turned to find her leg half gone into a patch of mushrooms. She angrily ripped it out, and Frank wasn’t happy. Most of her boot was ruined, cut up, and pierced in several places. Frank got next to her, but allowed her to wave him away, as she inspected her foot and cursed. There was a hole in the ground, filled with sharp wooden sticks. Little spikes that had cut and scraped Deli as her foot fell through, and then more waiting for her at the bottom.

It was nasty. Without Health, someone could seriously injure themselves on it.

“How bad?”

“Three whole points!” She cursed.

Frank looked at the large room. There were a lot of mushrooms.

***

They crossed the rest of the room like an old man and lady, poking the ground ahead of them with staff and axestaff. Someone had really been bored here. They found twenty one other traps, all of the same make. A woven cloth of mushroom thread, with some soil on it to hold up the mushrooms, but tear the moment someone stepped on it. Reaching the next entrance took a bit of climbing, as the stairs that were supposed to be there were gone. Nothing was left of them, except claw marks.

Frank needed a boost from Deli to get up, while she managed it fine on her own. It did wind her a bit, but only a little. They had four more rooms in this chain, and two more paths to check, before they’d need to go back for more.

The third room looked like a natural cavern, the only man made addition was a smooth stone path that wound its way through the raised stone spikes. The room was filled with the sound of dripping water, and spears of stone hanging from the ceiling. Frank didn’t like the look of them. If he was a bored Demon, he’d set something up with those…

***

Traps. Traps mundane, and a few magical. A whole heap of them. Room by room, they fought the terrain. It wasn’t fun. They’d gotten a handle on the “spike from above” trick just in time to start finding foul, jagged runes. And by find, Frank meant walk into a view of them and have them burst into an acid cloud. A cloud that hurt like hell and was worst on the eyes, mouth and lungs, if they were careless enough to breathe it in.

There was no warning, no light, no sound when they fired. And the damn acid was so fine it was almost invisible. Often, the first sign that they’d triggered a trap was when it started sizzling on an unlit torch.

They’d wrapped their weapons after the first time the acid got to them. Neither Frank nor Deli wanted to end up needing replacements.

It was a slog, and Deli got good at jumping back out of the traps once they triggered. At least they were quick to disperse. Still, their condition wasn’t terrible when they got to the final room.

Health = 21/42

Mana = 8

Frank was alright, and Deli was hanging in there at 31 health. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. A stash? Buried treasure? Maybe a boss fight, as they finally found the lair of the demons that set all those traps?

No. None of that.

What they found was a small shrine to Lady Phirra, the Goddess of Grace. One some demon had tried, repeatedly, to profane. They’d failed. Her life-sized statue stood frozen mid dance above the altar. The air in the room was warm, safe. The scratches made to the structure were strongest at the entrance, and faded the closer they got to from the statue. Frank could almost swear one of the marks was slowly smoothing out.

They checked, just to be sure, but there wasn’t a single trap in there.

The party returned with the good news, and went on to the next dead end. Along the way they picked up rumours that one of the companies had been restored enough to push on, and the Captain was with it. He’d gathered a small group, made of his Champion and other Names of note. They would try to break through the chamber they suspected held the Warlock and the Demons.

Frank and Deli had been left behind, with runners under instruction to find and call them, if another large group under a Skeleton looked like it might break one of the hastily raised barriers. They were one of four roaming parties, charged with reinforcing positions, if the call was sounded.

Frank wasn’t entirely happy not to have been part of that talk, but he wasn’t one of the Reclaimers. If that was the price of not being responsible for all this, he’d trust the man to know what he was doing. He would have appreciated more of a heads-up, but it wasn’t his command.

Frank would be stingy with his mana, going forward. Just in case.

***

In the second line, they found an honest to god Bone Giant, the room before last. It was four meters tall and its skull almost scraped the ceiling of the arena they found it in. It was a room for dueling and martial exercises. The Giant was stuck in it. Frank had no idea how it had gotten in, in the first place. Did it just grow there?

He peeked around the corner again. The wall rang. The thing might have no shield, but any thought of trying to get it with ranged attacks was dead in the water. It had rocks. And threw stones the size of his head, like Frank threw pebbles.

These ones would hurt a lot more if they hit.

It was too much. They weren’t going to risk it. They went back to report it, expecting little of the find. What they got from the Scorekeeper was a promissory note.

“Right of First Challenge – Bone Giant – Arena 2”

Apparently, once things settled down, there’d be an auction for those. One in which each party could bid on them.

As facing deadly monsters was the fastest way to progress, the right to pick one, the right one for a party? That was a valuable thing indeed.

Frank felt like they hadn’t earned it, exactly. Then he remembered the slog going through to the shrine had been, and stopped worrying about it.

“Luck of the draw, I guess. But to get something, you have to ante up for whatever might be in there.”

Deli was starting to flag, but they could do another one. Still, Frank knew better than to tempt fate. It would probably be another trapfest. He should have been ready for it the first time around, not let her walk into one. They did tell him this place was only swept every decade or so.

“Immortal Demons with all that time on their hands? No wonder it’s like this. Even if they can’t stay in one place for more than a week, they keep coming back, don’t they? Unlike monsters, the dead don’t hunt them.“